In the book, the Dr. Melanie Joy delves deeply into the reasons that so many people are able to traverse the incredible logical gaps that allow them to rationalize torturing and killing non-human animals for their own pleasure (at least, the animals that aren’t their pets, because those are DIFFERENT animals, right?) One of the points is that most people never see their “meat” before it comes to them nicely packaged, fried, and in a form that is totally unrecognizable as the living being that it began as.

I really can’t recommend this book enough, it’s probably my favorite book that I’ve read on the topic. I think most of us, as vegans, sort of understand how people rationalize and justify the torture involved in savoring a bite of animal flesh, but it’s really difficult to understand how they can be so outraged when dogs are mistreated while eating their juicy cow steak. Dr. Joy really breaks it down and shows how many factors work together to enable people to overcome their empathy.

Dr. Joy also defines “carnism” as “the invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions people to eat certain animals.” I can’t really do justice to her definition of this term in a short blog post, but it is much more accurate than the terms we vegans typically throw around, like “carnivore” or “omnivore.”

I’ll definitely have more thoughts to post from this book later. The topics here just barely scratch the surface of the material!

This “nugget” thing that I see trending on Twitter today perfectly demonstrates some of the concepts of the book. KFC is creating associations like “popcorn” and “nugget” to their product, instead of reality: breaded and deep fried chunks of tortured chickens. Obviously, it’s much easier for the average person that loves their pets and cute bunnies to eat “popcorn” and “nuggets.”

One thought on “My First Popcorn Nugget and a book recommendation”

This book sounds very interesting! I had never heard about it but I feel like I should look into it.
I don’t usually read this kind of books, or watch documentaries anymore because I made my choice and now I want to focus on the good and not on the bad side of this situation 🙂 But this one sounds interesting. Thank you!